Cubs Official Souvenir Program Volumes 20 - 28

 The Cubs switched things up again with their program in 2001.  Cubs Quarterly was gone, replaced by Cubs Official Souvenir Program.  The biggest difference is that just two editions of the program were now being made each season instead of four.

With just two editions, some of the material in the program could become out-of-date.  To get the fans current information, a new publication called "Scorecard Extra" was introduced.  It was a 10-12 page program with the traditional scorecard attached inside.  I'll have more on Scorecard Extra tomorrow.

These programs were pretty easy to find since there were just two per season.  I was able to get all 18 of them through the end of their run in 2009.  When the Cubs made the post-season in 2008 and 2009 they put out a special NLDS edition and I've got both of those too.

I'm not sure what the Cubs were considering new era in 2001.  They had the same manager, ownership, and front office.

The 2002 covers feature the artwork of Steve Musgrave.  There are actually two covers for each edition, with there rest of the content inside the same.  Sammy Sosa had the other #1 cover while Jon Leiber shares #2.  I'll add those other two some day if I can get them for a reasonable price.

The artwork of Steve Musgrave returned in 2003. Though the bottoms reference a specific edition, there is no other cover for #1 or #2.  It's just Dusty and Prior.  The NLDS version was made by the Cubs while MLB makes the NLCS edition.

Arms on #1 and bats on #2 in 2004.

Ryno graces the cover of the Cubs program for his tenth and final time.

The name was tweaked to "Yearbook-Style" program.  They tried to make the covers look like a school yearbook.

This was the second season with yearbook-style covers.  It seems very bare without any players.  They loaded up with players on the NLDS version.

The two-year yearbook style was out and players returned to the cover in 2008.

These two are the last of the souvenir programs. At first glance it almost looks like the same cover.  I'm sure that would have hurt sales.  People who bought the first one might skip buying the second if they couldn't tell it apart from the first.